Udupi

Udupi is a town in Udupi district in Karnataka, India. It is 50KM away from Mangalore, towards North side on NH17.

How to Reach

Volvo and express buses are avail from Mangalore City Bus stand and KSRTC bus stand frequently. Bus which goes to Manipal and Kollur, will also go to Udupi. The volvo fare is 60Rs and express fare is 39Rs.

Reaching Udupi

Mangalore > Surathkal > Mulki > Uchila > Udupi

I’ve started journey at 9AM from Mangalore City Bus Stand. I got down at the entrance of Udupi town on NH17 at 10:20AM. There is a big gate to welcome(Swagatha Gopura) and written in Sanskrit there,

The temple named Sri Jayadurga Parameswari Temple is almost 300Mtr away from the gate in opposite direction, but as the widening process of NH17 was going on I could not cross the road and had to walk for 300+ meters.

After the clicks there I went back to the gate and from there I took a city bus to go to the Krishna Math. It was just 3 minute(2-3KM) journey but the conductor took 5Rs 😮 ! I got down at Alankar bus stop(Alankar is a film theatre, found out it from Google Maps 🙂 ). The Taluk Office is situated at the same place. The conductor given me the direction to the Krishna Math and I followed his direction.
The road to the Krishna Math is just opposite to the Bus Stop.

I started walking along the road. On the way I could see the Hindi Prachar Samithi office at Udupi. Walked for 700Mtrs. and reached the Ratha Beedi/Cart Street. I could see the street is occupied by the Mathas and small and medium scale merchants. The most attracted ones are different kinda fruits and the handricraft of UDUPI. Also found one shop where they sell the Handicraft made from Vetiver.

As I was not having the clear idea about the place, I asked one of the guys sitting inside a building(later I came to know that, the bulding is a Math, named Pejavara Math). He has listed out the Mathas in the street, there are 8 mathas in the street which comes under Sri Krishna Math.

The Mathas are Athamara Math, Pejavar Math, Palimaru Math, Krishnapura Math, Sheeroor Math, Kaniyoor Math, Sode Math and Puthige Math. Also, I could see some other Mathas in the street. One of them was Raghaveendra Swami Math. The saints here are the supporters/believers of Dwaitha Vedantha(Phylosophy). The people here are the devotees of Vishnu.

In the Krishna Math, they provide the food for the devotees(Anna Dana) all the day except on Ekadashi’s and they got a big hall named Anna Brahma(Info got from the shop keepers). The day I opted(14th May, 2011) was falling under the same and I could not have the food from there. Near the Krishna Math there is a big hall for functions named as Rajyangana and there are two other temples named Sri MadhAnatheswara Temple and Sri Chamundeeswara Temple.

Stay Near Krishna Math

After spending 40 minutes there I moved to the Venkataraman Temple which is only half kilo meter away from the Krishna Math.

The Venkataraman Temple is a Konkani temple. On the way, I found a Konkani house, where the wall is covered with Wood and it was well maintained. I looked into the house and a lady came out and asked me all the WH questions and I replied for the same. Also I told her, I would like to see the house interior(which is partially visible from outside) as it was wooden furnished. She asked me to get the permission from the Home Maker and I got the permission from the Home Maker to shoot the interior.

The house belongs to Mr. U. Ramachandra Pai and Mrs. Revathi Pai(thanks to them for the permission to shoot). After shooting the interior, he has shown me the entire house and house belongings. The house is more than 100 years old and he did the wooden works 25 years back. He told the idea behind all the modifications was by him(he could manage place for the bathrooms inside the room in a highly talented way and he told no engineers have involved in the modification process! Kudos to him for the work done!). They offered me Drink(Panakam), Mango and Lunch with them. I thankfully rejected the offer for Lunch and moved to the Venkataraman Temple.

After clicking the Venkata Raman Temple, I continued my journey on foot to the bus stop. Time is 1:15PM now. My next destination is the Indrani Temple at Indrali. Asked a rikshawala how much may it cost to go there, he said 65Rs. I was not happy with that and I got a private bus to the City Bus stand and from there I got into a Manipal bus 😀 .

The fare to Indrali was 5Rs. I got down at Indrali bus stop after 10 minutes bus journey. The way to the Indrani temple is just opposite to the bus stop. I did not ask to any about the distance, but only direction. After walking 500mtr, I’ve asked one shop keeper about the temple direction and he asked me to walk straight through the road for 2KM! 🙁

I could see the temple 2KM away(Road Way, direct may be 1KM far), which is on the hill. The Sun was too hot! I got an umbrella in ma bag and took it out. Walked for 2KM and reached the temple, Sri Panchadurga Parameswari Temple(Indrani Temple). Took the snap and made a move to the bus stop.

Near to the temple, I heard a Malayalam film playing in the TV and went to the house. It was owned by Mr. Nambiar. He informed me that, the temple is direct east side of the temple Srimath Anantheswara Temple(Also, he told it was the famous one before Krishna Math became famous)

After 15min talk, I continued the journey to the Indrali Bus Stop and got into a bus which goes to Kadiyali. There is a temple named Sri Janardhana Mahakali. 4Rs fare to the bus and got down at Kadiyali. When I asked to the Autowalas, they could not give me a direction to the specified temple; does it mean that they don’t like to go or they fear to go there 😉 !

I dropped the plan to go Sri Janardhana Mahakali Temple. There at bus stop(the stop is another way to go to the Krishna Math), I found a big banner about 23 feet heigh Shaneeswara Temple at Bennanje. As it was around 2:30 PM, I wanted to have lunch. Planned to go Bennanje after lunch and I had lunch from near by veg hotel; 20Rs for lunch.

After my lunch went to the Shaneeswara Temple, which is almost 2KM away from the Kadiyali. The auto wala asked 50Rs for up and down, and I had to agree. The temple has started 14 months back. The place which they selected for the temple was an undeveloped area. They bought the place for 1 Crore and after that the place got good development(got info from the rikshawala). He dropped me at the city bus stand. It is 3:30 now.

My next destination is Malpe Beach, which is 6KM away from the city bus stand. The fare was 7Rs. Reached the beach after 25 Minutes bus journey. The conductor informed me that, the same bus will be reaching back here at 5O’clock.

There is a beach resort at Malpe Beach named Paradise Isle Beach Resort. Soon after reaching the seashore, I got into the boat, which goes to the St.Marys Island. They told me that, per head have to pay 150Rs. By hearing that, I got down and went to the cottages area at the beach 😉 . I could cover a 360° panorama(below) there.